The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission approved rule change on October 2 that allows the Cboe exchange to list six funds designed to deliver three times the daily price moves of Bitcoin, Ethereum, gold, silver, crude oil, and natural gas, according to the agency's order.

The funds come from Volatility Shares, the firm behind existing 2x leveraged Bitcoin and Ethereum products. Shares will trade on Cboe's BZX Exchange like ordinary stocks. The order sets no launch date.

Each fund targets three times the daily performance of futures contracts on its underlying asset. An exchange-traded fund (ETF) is a basket of assets bought and sold through a brokerage account like a share, and a leveraged version uses debt and other financial tools to amplify both returns and losses. These funds aim for triple: if Bitcoin futures rise 2% in a day, the fund seeks to gain 6%; if they fall 2%, it seeks to lose 6%. The exposure comes mainly through futures—contracts to buy or sell an asset at a set price on a later date.

There is a catch in the word "daily." These funds reset every day, so the 3x promise applies one day at a time. Over longer stretches, results can drift far from three times the asset's move. Consider Bitcoin futures dropping 10% on Monday and rising 10% on Tuesday: the asset ends down 1%, while a 3x fund falls 30%, gains 30%, and ends down 9%. On $100 worth of Bitcoin, a 30% drop removes $30, leaving $70; a 30% gain then adds $21, bringing the total to $91—9% down overall.

The SEC and FINRA have warned investors about precisely this compounding effect. Their alert says returns over more than one day can differ significantly from the daily target.

Why the SEC had to vote

Cboe's fast-track listing rules for commodity funds exclude products that chase a multiple of an asset's return, so the exchange needed the SEC to approve these funds individually. Apart from the 3x target, the funds must meet all of Cboe's other listing requirements.

The SEC leaned on existing guardrails. Brokers must act in a retail customer's best interest under Regulation Best Interest, and FINRA, the brokerage industry's self-regulator, imposes tougher sales and margin (borrowing) rules for leveraged products.

Volatility Shares launched the first leveraged crypto ETF in the U.S. in 2023, tracking Bitcoin futures. Spot Bitcoin ETFs, which hold the coins directly, arrived in January 2024 after a decade of rejections. Then the race for more leverage began. In October 2025, Defiance filed for 49 funds offering 3x long and short exposure, while Volatility Shares filed for 5x products.

The SEC pushed back. In December 2025, it halted its review of products with more than 2x exposure and sent warning letters to nine issuers, including ProShares. In March 2026, it asked issuers to avoid 5x products. At 3x, the newly approved funds sit in the middle of that spectrum: more leveraged than the 2x products already on the market, less aggressive than the 5x designs the agency asked issuers to avoid.

Volatility Shares kept shipping 2x funds regardless. In April 2026, it launched 2x funds on Cardano, Stellar, and Chainlink, adding to existing 2x products on Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, and XRP.

These are not the first 3x products. Earlier ones tied to silver, crude oil, and natural gas—from other issuers—have since left the market, per the order, though a 3x gold from another issuer still trades.

The order sets no launch date. According to Cboe's filing, the shares cannot trade until each fund's registration statement takes effect.